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Product Description
Product Description
What might a 'theory of everything' look like? Is science an ideology? Who were Adorno, Horkheimer or the Frankfurt School? The decades since the 1960s have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories. Deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vie for our attention. Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon's incisive graphic guide provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing ideas and provides an essential historical context, situating these theories within tradition of critical analysis going back to the rise of Marxism. They present the essential methods and objectives of each theoretical school in an incisive and accessible manner, and pay special attention to recurrent themes and concerns that have preoccupied a century of critical theoretical activity.
About the Author
Borin Van Loon has worked on numerous Introducing titles. He is a freelance illustrator, surrealist painter and collagist who produced the comic strip 'The Severed Head' for The Chap magazine.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you have struggled to understand Critical Theory - and who hasn't - then this book is a great first step.
It explains the basics of this all-encompassing, and sometimes seemingly impenetrable theory - but it uses illustrations to do it!
There are plenty of words as well - of course - but the illustrations certainly seem to make the learning easier!
If you are a visual learner - like me - it's great, and I suspect if you are any other kind of learner you will get something out of it as well.
It explains the basics of this all-encompassing, and sometimes seemingly impenetrable theory - but it uses illustrations to do it!
There are plenty of words as well - of course - but the illustrations certainly seem to make the learning easier!
If you are a visual learner - like me - it's great, and I suspect if you are any other kind of learner you will get something out of it as well.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I learnt more about Critica Therory with the help of this little 'comic' book than during three years of study as part of a University degree in Media Studies. Critical Theory was a big part of the course but until now (14 years later) I can't say I had a clear idea of what it was all about. Great series, I'm now reading the 'Philosophy' guide of the same series (albeit in its App form - available for the iPhone/iPod Touch)and it's proving to be just as good.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Good Overview - A Starting Point
27 Dec 2002
Format:Paperback
This book, part of a series (basically "Philosophy for dummies") will be purchased by stressed-out college students trying to write term papers for literature class. After getting totally confused by the impenetrable writing of the great theorists themselves, students will turn to this book hoping to get some light. The book gives a decent overview of the major theories, trying to put them in common language, something the theorists themselves seem incapable of writing in. It goes so far as to use cartoons to get the points across.
While it will help sort out Deconstruction from Formalism and so on, don't count on this to save your term paper the night before its due. There's not enough detail on any of the theories to stand alone, and they are presented in a strange order. Also, some of the major schools of criticism (like New Criticism) don't appear. The author is obviously quite fond of Marxism. Unfortunately, the author also slides into some of the same kind of mumbo-jumbo as the original theorists themselves.
The idea is still a great one, however. If you read this, then some of the more specific books that follow (Introducing Lacan, Derrida, etc) it may help get you started.
Hey, if the alternative is trying to sort through Derrida and Barthes themselves, then anything has got to be better.
While it will help sort out Deconstruction from Formalism and so on, don't count on this to save your term paper the night before its due. There's not enough detail on any of the theories to stand alone, and they are presented in a strange order. Also, some of the major schools of criticism (like New Criticism) don't appear. The author is obviously quite fond of Marxism. Unfortunately, the author also slides into some of the same kind of mumbo-jumbo as the original theorists themselves.
The idea is still a great one, however. If you read this, then some of the more specific books that follow (Introducing Lacan, Derrida, etc) it may help get you started.
Hey, if the alternative is trying to sort through Derrida and Barthes themselves, then anything has got to be better.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
I would say this book is very useful...
21 May 2008
Format:Paperback
Reading this book is not going to make you an expert on Foucault or Lacan- however, if what you are seeking is an idea as to the spectrum of schools and branches and concerns of "critical theory," or if you're not even terribly sure what "critical theory" IS, then I suggest you pick this book up. When I was just getting started, it really helped me create a "cognitive map" of the field. Basically you get a mapped out schema of the world of critical theory, with a few tantalizing tidbits dropped about some of the thinkers- then it is up to you to go out and get the real books and start reading them. But if you are starting from nothing, and don't even know what you want to read- Donald Rumsfield's "Unknown Unknowns," then start reading this book so you can figure out what your "Known unknowns" are: "I don't know anything about Althusser, but judging on what I read in this book, I now know that I want to study him," etc. I have a few other of the "Introducing" books, and, honestly, the only one I came back to at all frequently was this one. It does not try to "explain" any particular thinker, but to introduce you to a field- I think in this regard I think it is sucessful. It is by no means perfect- for instance, Zizek only gets two teeny little pages- but, again, it is making various "names" available to you, various schools, various strands- Frankfurt school, Deconstruction, Structuralism, Post Marxist, Post Feminist, etc- so that you can go out and get started. I highly recommend this book. I think it is terrific. (Plus the illustrations are great fun!) Critical theory can be a confusing hodge podge of theoretical models- this book will help you on the path.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating and fast read
2 Feb 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was fun to read. I liked how easily the author managed to reduce whole bodies of work into a sentence or two, which is precisely what I am looking for in these books. I agree with some of the other reviews here that he seems to dwell on Marxism and his influence, but I have always wondered why Marxism gets so much attention among "intellectuals" and this book helps to explain this phenomenon. While I doubt that this book sums up Critical Theory in its entirety, or even comes close, it definitely inspires further readings into the subject (at least it does for me), which is more than I can say for most books. I look forward to reading it again.
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